Posts Tagged ‘Christmas

In keeping with my ONLY Christmas decorating tradition, I present the third annual Fobot Holiday Mantelpiece. Warmest wishes to all the Fobot fans out there, and Phil and I hope to see you in person at an art fair next year.

This design was a collaborative effort. On Christmas Eve, two years ago, Phil (the lovely and talented husband) and I were throwing our annual Christmas Eve Party, wherein guests had to bring in the worst, ugliest, most profoundly unsuitable gift they had received that year for a REALLY nasty Santa gift exchange. Amid the frivolity, as one strove to unload that plastic Buddha with the magic eightball in its bottom and acquire the enormous plastic jar of popcorn shaped like a guitar with Elvis’ picture on it, something lovely happened. Our elderly cat, Theo, who was clearly on his last legs and didn’t like parties, entered the chaos and laid down in front of the fire, the very picture of contentment. Phil quickly snapped his picture, before he could change his mind, but he stayed for quite some time. Poor Theo died a week later, at the age of almost 21.

I took that photo, and with a program called Corel Painter, was able to “smush” the pixels around as if they were wet paint. The effect is absolutely remarkable. And this year, the painting was featured on a Christmas card. The samples just arrived, and once again, I’m a little misty over the thought of Theo and that Christmas two years ago. That and the Elvis guitar popcorn container.